Articles: Nanomaterials and Nanodevices

In 1989, a group of scientists led by Don Eigler astounded the world by using just a few atoms—thirty-five in all—to spell out I-B-M. This simple demonstration of moving atoms would become an icon for nanotechnology. The real challenge of moving individual atoms is that everyday objects are so big compared to an atom.

We don't often think about the toilet as a source of information, but scientists at Cambridge University are developing an 'intelligent loo' that is able to analyze your urine. The toilet is engineered to contain optical sensors that detect different chemicals in your urine. ... Read More...

Researchers at Georgia Tech have made the 'World's Smallest Ad' created for Arby's, the fast food restaurants. The ad was printed on the side of a sesame seed, like the one you might find....wait for it....on a roast beef sandwich bun. The size of ... Read More...

Some medicines are more effective when they are delivered at the site where they are needed and when they are needed. Think about taking an aspirin but it works only when you have a headache. Scientists from have developed a biodegradable material with nanometer-scale ... Read More...

Mostly everything has a nano-unit measurement including sounds. The human ear can hear things down to around 0 decibels. If you are about 100 feet from a jet as it takes off that is about 150 decibels. Your headphones can be cranked up to around ... Read More...

Before you call the typo police, we are talking mussels, not muscles. Researchers at Purdue University have developed an adhesive that is based upon the same stuff that mussels use to stay stuck to wooden poles, rocks and other places that mussels like to ... Read More...

Bees carry out important work by pollinating flowers---they move pollen from one part of the flower to another or between flowers. They contribute something like $29 billion dollars to the farm economy in the US alone. For a number of reasons the bee population is ... Read More...

Sometimes science can just be fun if not edible. Scientists at MIT have developed a process to make pasta that shape-shifts upon cooking. They claim it could save on shipping costs because you might be able to pack these flat noodles into a smaller ... Read More...

Making computer parts smaller and smaller is the reason why your average laptop is a zillion times more powerful than computers from 50 years ago that used to fill up an entire room. The basic component of a computer chip is a transistor which is ... Read More...

The world's smallest version of the Edmonton Oilers logo has been created by a group of scientists at the University of Alberta. The Oilers are the city's NHL hockey team and they are currently in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The logo is only 2400 ... Read More...

Spinal injuries can be devastating with the loss of movement in arms and legs. The primary problem is damage to neurons, those cells that transmit signals to and from the brain. There have been many attempts to fix neurons. Scientists at MIT have developed a ... Read More...

Nature provides a lot of inspiration for making things on the nanoscale. We have evolution to help get the design right and then if we are smart enough we can go into the lab figure out how it works and copy it. Things like gecko ... Read More...

Scientists come in all shapes, sizes and colors. One of the super heros of nanotechnology died last week. Mildred Dresselhaus. Who? Dresselhaus was one of the pioneers in the discovery of carbon nanotubes and predicted their existence long before anyone even saw one. Carbon ... Read More...

Fishing is a tricky business because fish are smart. Well maybe not 'smart' but they can do things to protect themselves from predators who are trying eat them. Scientists at the University of Texas have discovered that the skin of certain ... Read More...

Solar power is one of the best ways to make electricity. It’s clean and doesn’t consume any non-renewable resources, like oil and coal. It takes energy from sunlight and converts it to electricity. The challenge is that solar power could be more efficient. Only a ... Read More...

Silicon crystals. Why are they important? Well, the stuff is so important that there is even a place named after it, Silicon Valley. That place in California where there are lots of companies that make cool stuff from silicon. So what’s with silicon? Why is ... Read More...

Carbon nanotubes are tiny tubes made up of only carbon atoms and have diameters that are only a few nanometers wide. Even though they are so tiny, they are super strong. The reason that they are so strong is because of the way their ... Read More...

Sometimes during summer you might see a tiny flashing light at night. It could be the light from a small firefly. There are lots of things that glow in the dark. Some things like fireflies make their own light. This is called luminescence. You see ... Read More...

Buckyballs a.k.a. Buckminsterfullerenes, are hollow spherical molecules made up entirely of carbon. They are named after Richard Buckminster (“Bucky”) Fuller because buckyballs look like the buildings he designed. The smallest buckyballs are made up of 60 carbon atoms and have diameter of about 1 nanometer.
These ... Read More...

It is stronger than steel and taller than the Empire State Building (well relatively speaking). It was discovered in a pile of black crud, not exactly by accident but pretty close. What are these things? Carbon nanotubes and they were discovered in 1991 by scientists ... Read More...

Ever wonder how a computer works?
If you were to take apart your computer and look inside there would be a lot of electronic parts including something called a microprocessor or as it’s commonly called, a chip. Inside of that chip are lots and lots of ... Read More...